John Peel was a yeoman farmer in the north of the Lake District in Cumbria (he lived at Ruththwaite, near Ireby, and is buried at Caldbeck), and he never 'led the gentry' - he ran a pack of fell hounds. Their descendants are hounds of the Blencathra Hunt, who still do their hunting on foot in the fells, as John Peel did most of the time. His coat was not 'gay', it was gray - being made of the wool of the local Herdwick sheep. 'Ken' is Cumbrian as well as Scottish, and mean 'know'. Oh, and he was also my great-great-great-great-great uncle.